Rio 2

I am at the outset going to make a candid confession.  I didn’t like Rio too much.  I found it to be too much of an avian fantasy.  It seemed force fitted into one of the most gorgeous places on earth and that didn’t go too well with me.  I found a lot of characters to be over the top and frankly the concept was nowhere close to animations like Lion King or Finding Nemo or even Shrek (not one of my favourites).

This time around it is not too different.  Jewel (Anne Hathaway) and Blu (Jesse Eisenberg) are now a couple with 3 li’l Spix Macaws of their own, taking the total tally of their species to a princely 5. Yeah!!! They are in the marvelous city now and living their lives with their Televisions and iPods and pancakes for breakfast and everything that you would associate with the city.

However, when Linda (Leslie Mann) and Tulio (Rodrigo Santoro) find the possibility of more Spix Macaws deep in the Amazon, our first family decide to take a trip to the Amazon themselves.  Of course with the help of GPS.  Upon reaching there, they first bump into Eduardo (Andy Garcia) who happens to be Jewel’s father and then Roberto (Bruno Mars), her childhood friend.

Quite boring actually – and you would be right in thinking so because Rio 2 is actually less entertaining than Rio.  And if it weren’t for the supremely brilliant character of Nigel (Jemaine Clement), the entire story would have been akin to a Bollywood family melodrama. It isn’t too far actually.  Nigel rocks the show through and through.

Giving Nigel company is Gabi (Kristin Chenoweth) the poisonous frog who is totally smitten by Nigel but cannot touch him because she could kill him.  Gabi and Nigel will forever remain as the only memorable characters for me in this otherwise average animation story.

Carlos Saldanha who also gave us the Ice Age series somehow gets carried away with the rush of colour of his homeland and leaves Rio 2 as exactly that – a mélange of colours with little else.  The dialogue is entertaining in parts.  The characters are not the most memorable either.  The story has no intrinsic message nor does it have anything different to offer.

Take all of my comments with a pinch of salt because of the points in my first paragraph.  I wasn’t a Rio fan.  Sadly, I haven’t converted to a Rio fan after the sequel.  However, it is not a horribly made movie and I know that the kids will love it.  Some of you Rio fans out there will definitely enjoy it.  I am going with a 6 on 10 but it may be higher for you.  It’s the vacations.  Have a dekko.

Watch the trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2908400153/?ref_=tt_ov_vi